Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The two types of people
My sister and I got our own Kindles this summer. It was a moment of pure, unadulterated joy: we now have the power to read thousands of books without collapsing under their weight!
We got one of the newer models, the Paperwhite. While I can extol about its many features (touchscreen, has a built-in vocabulary builder and an incredible battery life), I noticed something fascinating about the way my sister and I handled the gadget.
I realised that there are two types of people in this world: those that read the manual, and those who don’t.
While my sister immediately powered up the device and started to transfer books; I spent a solid hour going through the tutorial, reading the manual, looking up videos on any hidden features.
Neither approach is inherently better: we both achieved the same goal. However, those who read the manual miss out on the experience of being lost, and fathoming your own way in an unfamiliar situation.
To some extent, manual readers spend more time trying to plan and prepare rather than actually taking action. But, when my sister didn’t know how to change the brightness settings, I was the one who knew how to do it.
Maybe it is for the best that we have both types of people. It maintains the balance in an otherwise crazy world.
